Wooing Kate

Chapter: 6

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"We've got to do something, Will. We can't just sit here. We can't leave Kate out there with Adhemar after her."

Will looked up at the two women. Apparently, Geoff was now in trouble along with Roland. Whatever he'd said to Christiana and Jocelyn hadn't done any good. Both women were still upset, only now in an icy, almost detached way, as though they'd removed themselves emotionally from the issue. Christiana especially. Will had never seen the young woman so...cold. Her expression fair gave him chills.

If only Kate had come to them all instead of rushing off with Adhemar's herald! He'd have urged her to stay and gone to Adhemar himself over her, anything to straighten out the mess she'd gotten into. She didn't need to run off, to sneak away. How could she have thought it better to run away? Didn't she know that he'd fight for her? He'd fight for anyone he considered a friend and Kate was of the dearest of those.

This was a fine mess, too. Geoff and Roland willing to sacrifice Kate for him. Jocelyn had practically spit that out, that Geoffrey Chaucer held the same view as Roland. How wrong was that? He'd not expected it from either man. Neither had seemed the sort. He had to talk with them both, understand why.

"I have to know more than I know right now." Geoff and Roland sat side by side and Wat stood looking out the window. Will didn't want to discuss it all with the women present. Jocelyn was mad enough that he half expected her to take out her eating dagger and use it on either Roland or Geoff. "Would you give us time to talk? Please Jocelyn. Christiana." It wasn't a question, but rather what he expected and the women left, after exchanging a glance.

Now, it was only the men and they could talk without feminine emotions flaring up. "Roland."

The man drew in a breath, loud and shaking, jumping right in to the subject. "She's a grown woman, Will. She made a choice and she should have faced the consequences." Roland was desperate for understanding, his expression anguished, but Will couldn't give him that understanding, for he didn't understand.

Will looked at Geoff, who appeared unrepentant, even bored. "Geoff?"

"Look William, we can stand about and banter this day and night and nothing will change the fact that Roland gave Kate that advice. It's done and we must move on."

"If I could go back, I'd keep my mouth shut, that's for sure." Roland muttered.

"I don't understand why the two of you are so willing to sacrifice Kate for me. Has she been any less of a friend to either of you?" Will shook his head. He was having difficulty wrapping his mind around this development. "Explain it to me, both of you, because I don't fathom why you'd prefer sending Kate to Adhemar, a man known to belittle and degrade peasants, than to fight for her."

Roland crumbled, shoulders bowing. "I made a mistake. God, haven't you ever made one that came back and gutted you? It was a huge mistake and I'd take it back if I could. I panicked. That's all it was. All I could think of was Adhemar coming here looking for Kate and a fight and murdering us all. The safer option seemed, at the time, for her to just go back to him. He'd have likely tired of her in a day or two if his track record is any indication. It was easier than...than death."

Will glanced at Geoff, but it was Wat who put the words to voice.

"Well, what's your excuse, you lanky, no-good scribe?"

"My excuse? Have I need of one? Is it wrong to hold a personal opinion?" He crossed his arms, a strange expression in his blue eyes, one that Will couldn't make heads or tails of. "Very well, Wat. It would have been much easier on Kate had she gone back, for one thing. Roland is right, I suspect, in that Adhemar would have lost interest quickly. For Adhemar, the chase is the best part." He raised his voice. "Don't you agree, my lady? Eavesdropping is unbecoming to you, please join us."

Jocelyn pushed open the door the rest of the way with one hand and fixed a cool stare upon Geoff, declining to comment. Will went to her, drew her in and closed the panel. Her arm slipped about his waist. He was sorry she'd returned so quickly, but he could understand that at least. Jocelyn had come to consider them all hers by association with him. They were her friends because they were his and Kate, as female like Jocelyn, was more of a friend by that connection of sisterhood. No, they hadn't spoken much, those two, but Jocelyn would fight for her as though she was her closest friend.

"How would she have fared if we'd made a stand? I'm a knight, Geoff, I should have protected her. As her friend, I should have protected her. I should have been allowed to have that chance."

Wat's temper was on the rise, his jaw clenching and gaze going as hard as pebbles. "Your argument is flawed." He pointed at Geoff.

"And you're reading too much into my opinion. Personally, I don't think Adhemar will hurt her in any way. He likes women. It's men he likes to hit...." He sighed. "Look, what's done is done. What has been said, right or wrong, has been said. Roland expresses the deepest of regrets and we're all entitled to our opinion, no matter if another agrees or not. Perhaps I shouldn't have admitted the opinion, but Lady Jocelyn, you shouldn't have asked." Geoff shook his head. "Kate knew better and did it anyway, drunk or not. We don't know how drunk she was and I can only conclude she knew exactly what she was doing when she went with Adhemar. She should have gone back."

"Insensitive swine." Jocelyn spit out.

"Have I said that I thought she should climb back in bed with the man?"

"Don't try and wiggle away Geoffrey, it was implied." She tensed against Will and he ran a soothing hand along her back.

"Kate is a grown woman who knew what she was getting into. She panicked, like Roland did. What would have happened had she not? A writer's favorite past time, looking at the possibilities. Let me think. She'd have expressed her regrets, undoubtedly with that loud dulcet tone we've all heard--"

All of a sudden, Will couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't stand the arguing, the hateful words.... "Enough," he shouted. "We're going in circles. Everyone shut up. You don't know what you'd have said, Geoff, any more than the rest of us know what we'd have said. It's speculation and the only real issue at present is Roland's selfish, self-preserving slip, which he's anguishing over right now. It was self-preservation, I see that. Geoff, you don't mean that." He let go of Jocelyn, faced her. "Jocelyn, ignore Geoff's words as idle speculation to a question that wasn't even fair, for that's all it is. Do you see that?"

"Will, he means it. He really believes that Kate should have gone back--"

"He may think he'd say that and he's giving a good show of behaving as though he believes it, but put Geoff in that position and I doubt he'd do it."

"You'd have said the same of me once, Will." Roland's voice was low and husky, as though he was fighting back tears. Maybe he was, Will decided. He seemed to be greatly regretting his advice to Kate and his admission of it.

"Roland--"

"No, Will. I've no excuse. None." He looked at Geoff. "Pretty words can't take the focus off of me Geoff. You've a quick mind and, while I appreciate the support, give it up now. I can take the criticism alone."

The herald made no contradiction Will noticed, but he wasn't entirely certain Geoff was so noble as to support Roland just so the man wouldn't have to bear criticism alone. He could be he supposed. It was more likely, he thought, that Geoff was momentarily surprised that Roland thought him so loyal of character. Sometimes, Will wondered how much of them Geoff really saw. Geoff was a writer and spinner of tales by admission, and Will wondered if Geoff saw them most times as simply characters, becoming surprised when they didn't react as he'd expected, as he'd write them.

Roland passed a hand over his face. "I made a mistake and I've lost more from a few words than I'd ever thought. Let's move on, shall we? I'm sorry. How many times shall I say it?"

"Tell it to Kate," Jocelyn said simply.

"I'll kiss her bare feet and call myself unworthy, then beg her forgiveness when I see her next and every time thereafter." Roland left the room, edging by Jocelyn as though he feared she'd strike him.

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Roland sat sewing, the constant movement of taking the stitches soothing to his troubled mind. He'd cut his own throat with Christiana. She wouldn't even look at him now. The knowledge that he'd lost her love through careless words was nearly more pain than he could bear, an excruciating knife in his belly.

Damn it all! If he could go back, he'd do it differently. But there was no going back and as a consequence, he'd lost Christiana's love, forever he suspected. There'd be no softening of her heart back towards him now.

Not only her love gone, but respect from the others as well. Lady Jocelyn looked at him as if he was a worm in an apple she'd taken a bite of. Wat, for once in his life, showed no emotion, which bothered Roland even more than Will's pleading eyes. The only time Wat showed no emotion was when something didn't concern him at all. Therefore, Roland no longer concerned him. There'd be no more friendly taunting and teasing, no more joking. He'd lost a good friend with Wat.

He wasn't one to cry like a baby, but right now he was close. He'd succumbed to panic when he shouldn't have, given in to it's grasping hands.

When Kate had revealed what she'd done, he'd felt the most horrible crush of fear and panic in his chest, a heavy weight on his chest, a fist squeezing his throat. He'd not thought he could even draw a breath to respond. She'd said she was fleeing and all he could see before his eyes was Adhemar coming and hurting them all.

He'd messed up. He'd thrown away everything with a few words. They didn't want him around anymore and who could blame them? It could be one of them he betrayed next. Roland set the cloth aside, not bothering to anchor the needle in the cloth and unconcerned when it slipped free of the thread and dropped onto the floor to be lost there.

There was nothing else to do, but the obvious.

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Will was beginning to worry. He'd not seen any sign of Roland since the afternoon before, when the man had walked from the room. Will was meeting Jocelyn's father soon and he wanted Roland to look him over before they left, make sure he looked proper. He chewed on a thumbnail, then turned his head. "Wat, where's Roland?" The man would know.

Wat glanced away, studying the distance.

"Where's Geoff then?" Geoff would do in a pinch. Geoff could advise him on how he'd dressed wrong if need be. There was no answer again and Will was opening his mouth to demand that Wat drop the innocent act and tell him when Jocelyn burst through the door, out of breath, her lovely face set with worry.

"I can't find Christiana anywhere. No one has seen her and all of her things are gone."

Will turned to Wat, giving him a suspicious stare. "If you know anything about this Wat, tell me now."

He ran a hand through his red hair, giving Jocelyn an apologetic look. "Fine. Roland set out last night. I don't know where he's going. I didn't ask. Geoff left this morning, and as for Christiana, she set out about noon. I know where she's going. She's going to rescue Kate."

"Alone!" Will rolled his eyes. "She thinks she's going to rescue Kate all by herself?"

Jocelyn cleared her throat, Will returning his regard to her. All the panic drained from her, leaving only the worry. Her tongue darted out, wetting her lips. "I didn't think she'd go alone, Will. I thought she understood we needed more people to go with us."

A horrible suspicion began to grow in his mind. More people. Hmm. "Us?" He crossed his arms. "Explain."

She clasped her hands together almost primly. "Well, last night we came up with a plan for Christiana to go to Adhemar, claiming she'd been released from her posting. She'd ask to companion his mother. Rumor is that lady is ill at present and that her current companion left rather suddenly. Then, when she's settled, we'll trickle in wanting to work...."

"Am I the only sane one left?"

Wat raised a hand. "I'm sane."

Will rolled his eyes again. "Edward hasn't left to return to Aquitaine yet. You want a rescue plan? Here's mine. I go to Edward, have him send a directive to Adhemar requiring Kate to be returned unharmed."

"He's French, Will. Adhemar won't care what Edward writes."

"So Edward goes to Charles."

"It won't work."

"Why?"

"Political unrest."

"They'll negotiate."

"Over a peasant woman?" Jocelyn tossed up her hands.

"I have to try proper channels first if I'm to be taken seriously at all, Jocelyn. My title means nothing to Adhemar if I go in on some half-formed plan. He'll be more inclined to take anything I say seriously if I do this properly."

And so Jocelyn agreed to wait, making her displeasure unmistakable in private. The meeting with her father was pleasant, though Will was certain by the man's occasional knowing stare that he knew very well what Will and Jocelyn had been up to in private. It was disconcerting. Even more disconcerting, strangely so, was discovering that Jocelyn's stepmother was a year younger than Jocelyn. Jocelyn ignored her as much as she could, concentrating herself upon her father and making a tiny request about Christiana.

Will didn't hear what the request was, but he imagined it had something to do with the rescue plan. Oh, he wasn't under any illusions that he'd truly stayed Jocelyn. No, she was going to go ahead with her plan and claim she wasn't. He didn't have the heart to tell her she was being obvious.

Upon returning, Wat gave him news. Edward had already left, but Joan was still in London, checking her estates and completing some minor business. She'd graciously assented to see Sir William first thing in the morning. With any luck, the two of them could find some way to help Kate through official channels.